South Asia Readings

Frampton, Kenneth, South Asian Architecture: In Search of a Future Origin, in: “An Architecture of Independence: the Making of Modern South Asia”, The Architectural League of New York, New York, 1998, pp. 10-12.

In this article, Kenneth Frampton discusses the work exhibited in An Architecture of Independence: The Making of Modern South Asia. Although he starts off by saying that the representation of the large South Asian subcontinent by the work of only four architects “is necessarily biased and full of lacunae”, he continues by stressing the importance of their contributions, as it is “work of the highest quality that further the modernist project while coming to terms with the demands of climate, topography, and indigenous culture.” The (early) work of these architects – Achyut Kanvinde, Muzharul Islam, Balkrishna Doshi and Charles Correa - has been influenced by that of Louis Kahn. The ease by which Kahn’s work was received may be explained by the extent of the Mughal civilization which covered most of South Asia. This civilization, however Islamic, “reinforced the pre-existing South Asian propensity for cosmological, geometrical architecture”.

The exhibited work of Achyut Kanvinde and Muzharul Islam is briefly discussed. Kahn’s work, like the Bangladeshi parliamentary complex, influenced especially the latter – Islam also being “the most overtly political of the architects included in the exhibition.” The early works of Balkrishna Doshi were influenced by Le Corbusier (Chandigarh). In his later works, Doshi “brilliantly” fused this influence with Kahn’s legacy and the Moghul heritage. Doshi, as well as Charles Correa, “demonstrated the general viability of low-rise, high-density housing as a normative form of ecological development”. One of Correa’s well-known early realisations is New Bombay, a project which has known limited success. Later on, the scope of his work shifted from the design and realization of residential fabric to that of “symbolic public buildings”, the symbolic “invariably accompanied by the traditional value that Correa attaches to the concept of ‘open-to-sky-space’”. This shift makes up the mayor difference between Correa and the other architects included in the exhibition.

Mehrotra, Rahul, Introductory Essay: The Architecture of Pluralism – A Century of Building in South Asia, in: Frampton, K. (ed.), “World Architecture: A Critical Mosaic 1900-2000 - Volume 8: South Asia”, Springer-Verlag Wien New York and China Architecture and Building Press, New York, 2000, pp. XVII-XXX.

In this article, Rahul Mehrotra discusses the role of architecture in the South Asian landscape, “a landscape of extreme paradoxes and dramatic transitions”, past and present ones. This role “has not only represented and expressed the contemporary aspirations of a society, but more critically the setting up of crucial counterpoints of showing new ways and preferred realities.” To show this, Mehrotra browses through history (some pages of the article are missing):

• The ‘Indo-Saracenic’ style was preferred by the British in South Asia at the end of the 19^th – beginning of the 20^th century. It was inspired by the Mughal architecture: “an architecture of synthesis ‘reassembling’ components from all over South Asia”, as to create “a composite identity for the region in validation of the colonial boundaries”.
• Between 1900 and 1940, there was a constant tussle between (suggested) modernist (internationalism, Art Deco, ‘minimal’ Ghandian architecture) and revivalist ideas (folk tradition). The latter one first gained currency in nationalist circles as it was most clearly opposed to ‘western decadence and imperialism’. Later on, modernism prevailed under Nehru as to fulfil a new (nationalist) social agenda (e.g. Chandigarh).
• By the 1970s, the search for regional (instead of national) identity came into prominence. Out of this, “a ‘regionalism’ with a play between modernity and traditional vocabulary emerged as the focus of the profession in South Asia.” This architecture now can be considered as “a middle path between global corporate architecture and religion driven fundamentalism (that takes refuge in icons, methods and building practices of the ancients)”.